As discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,439,510 and U.S. Pat. No. 9,526,337, over the past two decades, residential bathrooms have become increasingly more elaborate, lavish, and luxurious. In most high-end bathrooms, custom fixtures, custom made sinks, custom showers, custom baths, and custom wall and shower tile have become commonplace in residential homes and luxury hotels. For example, in most of these high-end custom bathrooms, showers utilize custom tile, including but not limited to, marble, granite, ceramic, and travertine. In these custom showers, corner shelves have also become increasingly popular to place shampoos, soap, and other toiletries inside the shower in lieu of alternative options such as shower caddies. These corner shelves advantageously provide the functional utility of storing items within the shower while concurrently being aesthetically pleasing.
As discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,439,510 and U.S. Pat. No. 9,526,337, corner shelves typically have two different, conventional modes of installation. A first mode of installation includes framing a corner shelf area using lumber, which is subsequently covered with sheet rock. After hanging sheet rock within the shower area, and over the corner shelf area, decorative tile or stone is subsequently placed within the shower and forms both the shower area and the corner shelf. However, this method of forming a corner shelf within a shower is complex and time consuming. Also, these types of shower corner shelves are often susceptible to water damage and deterioration because water often penetrates through holes in the grout if the grouting is not constantly maintained. A second mode of installation includes, installing a pre-formed corner shelf within an existing shower corner. In order to install the pre-formed shower corner shelf within a pre-existing shower corner, a tile saw must first be used to cut and remove a portion of the tile that forms a groove/channel/recess capable of receiving complimentary protrusions from the pre-formed corner shelf. For example, when installing shelf, an adhesive is applied to the pre-formed shelf's protrusions, which are then pressed in and adhered to the groove/channel until the shelf is fixed to the shower corner. After installation, grout may be applied around the edges of the shelf to prevent water from leaking into the wall immediately behind shelf and the shower tile. After installation, the shelf can be used for toiletry storage.
Each of the above mentioned shelf installation methods are complex, laborious, and time consuming. U.S. Pat. No. 9,439,510 and U.S. Pat. No. 9,526,337 addressed these issues by providing alternative, more efficient methods and assemblies for retrofit shower corner shelf installation. However, a need remains for additional more efficient methods and assemblies for retrofit shower corner shelf installation including specialized tool(s) that further facilitate these alternative methods.